team physician for local high school and college athletes. His practice is focused on sports medicine and arthroscopic treatment of knee and shoulder disorders including knee preservation surgery, shoulder instability and rotator cuff repair. Upon hearing about the NY Giants’ Wide Receiver Victor Cruz’s knee injury, we reached out to Dr. Delos to give us insight on Victor’s type of injury. Dr. Delos said:

“Victor Cruz sustained a devastating injury to his knee last night, an injury that will cost him the rest of the season. While attempting to catch a ball in the end zone, he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee. The patellar tendon is a structure that attaches the kneecap (patella) to the shinbone (tibia). When the patellar tendon is torn, the player cannot straighten (extend) his knee and obviously cannot perform at the high level expected in the NFL.

Patellar tendon ruptures are relatively uncommon injuries that occur in otherwise healthy players without any predisposing factors. The mechanism of injury is typically eccentric overload (forcibly bending the knee while the quadricep is firing).

Studies of NFL players with this injury report that the vast majority are able to return to NFL level play after surgery and extensive rehabilitation. Let’s wish Victor a speedy recovery so we can watch him salsa in the end zone again!”